Victim Testifies at Todd Bridges’ Trial

A convicted drug dealer testified Tuesday that former television actor Todd Bridges shot him at close range, emptying the handgun until he heard its hammer clicking.

Kenneth (Tex) Clay took the witness stand for the prosecution on the first day of the Los Angeles Superior Court trial for Bridges, 24, who played Gary Coleman’s protective older brother in the NBC-TV series “Diff’rent Strokes.

Bridges is on trial for first-degree attempted murder in connection with the Feb. 2 shooting

“As I looked up, he shot me . . . in the mouth and I fell back,” Clay testified. “I was trying to squirm away, but I just didn’t have the strength to move.”

Clay, a convicted drug dealer from Texas, said he met the actor at a South-Central Los Angeles drug den where he worked as a bodyguard, protecting a cocaine dealer named “Cisco” who lived at the residence.

Bridges, who began acting at age 6 and portrayed Willis Jackson for eight years on “Diff’rent Strokes,” was living with two women in the same heavily fortified house, Clay testified. The so-called rock house was a gathering place for smoking crack cocaine.

If convicted, Bridges could be sentenced to life in prison.